Monday, March 31, 2008

"Give Me Back My Smooth Jazz, You Hags!"

I decided to look up the Imus affiliate in one of my favorite cities, Washington, DC. If you'll recall, he's on an oldies station there that previously had a smooth jazz format.

I eventually stumbled upon their website. It's pretty sparse at the moment, but they do have a little poll where you can express your feelings about the I-Man. Are you're happy that he's back in DC? If you vote, you can write in a comment or read others from different listeners.

Some voters are thrilled that he's back. Others? Not so much.

You might think that smooth jazz aficionados are laid-back, passive individuals. You might not think that they would leave violent, Unabomber-esque messages towards the radio staff. My favorite comment, quoted in the subject line, nicely summarizes their feelings.

These people are angry. In fact, they're so angry that they sound exactly like...well, they sound like me, circa April 2007.

If some DC federal worker goes on a rampage in the next few months, it's very likely that he'll be a Yanni fan...

If McCain wins, Imus might even get invited back to whatever that dinner was where he insulted the Clintons :)

The show is getting a little tiresome with its PC-ness - I feel like just because Imus screwed up the rest of us have been sentenced to be lectured on race relations every morning. And, if it's true that Jesse Jackson will be a guest, then I'll be lectured by someone I don't even respect.

Speaking of McCain - you know how it's been reported in the news that he's making a list of his VP candidates? The source for that info comes from his interview on the program this past Wednesday. All of the articles about it cited the Imus show. That makes me happy.

What DOESN'T make me happy is the whole "Reverend" Jackson thing. I first thought that it was an April Fool's prank. Then, with a sinking feeling, I remembered that Jesse was with MLK in Memphis on the night that he died, which therefore means that Imus has a legitimate reason to interview him on the 40th anniversary.

So I think I'm going to skip out on tomorrow's show, then read everyone's reactions to see if it's worth listening to. This sounds terrible, but I don't want to be preached at for three hours. I *especially* don't want to be preached at by Mr. Hymietown.

Whenever Imus gets on these guilt-trip rants, making me feel guilty for comments I didn't even make, I usually fast forward or just tune it out. This is the biggest problem of his new show - no one enjoys being lectured to, and I don't want to be told every morning that I'm a racist. Especially since I'm not.